Wildland Fire Litigation

Murchison & Cumming’s Wildland Fire Litigation practice group represents utilities, electric cooperatives and oil companies in wildland fire cases. The members of the Wildland Fire Team have acquired extensive training and experience in utility practices and procedures as well as in electric power distribution. Our expertise includes handling and trying complex, high-exposure cases involving catastrophic losses, fire progression analysis, damages analysis and providing strategic counseling on risk management.

Members of the Wildland Fire practice group perform rapid response tasks including attending inspections at the suspected area or point of origin, and fact gathering within hours or days of the start of the fire. Our team has managed cases that involve issues related to the construction, design and maintenance of electric power transmission and distribution facilities. They have extensive experience in various jurisdictions handling litigation initiated by hundreds to thousands of homeowners, pursued either on a consolidated or class action basis, subrogating insurers and fire response agencies from various levels of government. The group maintains a team of highly-qualified experts to analyze and assess fire scenes, provide cause and origin testimony, and assess property damage, suppression costs and resource damages, including Habitat Equivalency Analysis.

The practice group has represented clients in the following matters:

• Fillmore Fire
• Calabasas Fire
• Happy Camp Fire
• Brea Landfill Fire
• Grass Valley Fire
• Sayre Fire
• Malibu Canyon Fire
• Birch Fire
• Ranch Fire
• Stearns Wharf Fire
• Bastrop County Complex Fire 

For more information about the Wildland Fire Litigation Practice Group of Murchison & Cumming LLP, its attorneys and services, please contact:

Friedrich W. Seitz, Chair
213-630-1000